– Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon has increased his call to expand education funding in the Fiscal Year 2015 budget, announcing Wednesday he would seek a $36.7 million increase for higher education funding in order to freeze college tuition.

“To keep our economy growing, we need every student in Missouri to have access to an affordable college education and to graduate without a heavy burden of debt,” Nixon said in a statement. “Our efforts to hold down tuition and support our scholarship and financial aid programs have helped make Missouri a national leader in college affordability. Today I am calling on our four-year universities to help us build on this momentum by holding undergraduate tuition flat next year.”

If approved by lawmakers, the $36.7 million increase could represent a 5 percent bump for state higher education institutions. Nixon’s office said the funding would be made available through the state’s performance-based funding model for higher education which was implemented earlier this year.

Nixon’s call to expand higher education funding comes as he has called for what could be a $200 million increase in funding for K-12 education institutions in order to fulfill his pledge to fully fund the K-12 foundation formula by 2017, as well as a call for a $15 million boost to the state’s Bright Flight scholarship program.